Do Memoirs Have to Be True?
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Wolran Kim
Read & Respond (Jan 2011)
“Do Memoirs Have to Be True?”By Jenny Rough
Memoirists often take some liberties with the “truth”. Is that OK?
Jenny Rough changed her opinion about memoirists taking liberties with the "truth", because of James Frey, who became a scapegoat for his adaptation of his memoir. If it is not intentional, the adaptation of the distortions and fabrications can be fully accepted.
The diary was important language homework in my elementary school. Large spaces which can draw with crayons as artworks occupied half of one page, and I often wrote beautiful happy ending fairy tales as my diary. So one of my sisters, who have arguing with me as a hobby, questioned me whenever she read my diary behind me. Yes, I did. I was a liar. I often adapted to lie convincingly in my diary because the diary had to be open to the teacher, not only my secret diary. It was painful that my gloomy veiled family history had to be read by others’ eyes. Therefore I drew my picture which I wanted to be, not reality, with a beautiful imagination as happy as possible. Everything around me—my family, my house, my room, my garden, and my roof—had to be painted just like my dream. They were actors and the stage I made. My diary was not all lies, and my heart was always true in the outside of reality. Rough mentioned about this view, "Hashing out the notion of factual truth versus emotional truth."
Rough said "Read Augusten Burroughs' and John Elder Robison's memoirs. If you didn't know they were brothers, you’d never believe they had the same parents." I have six older sisters and one younger brother. I was surprised often, whenever I shared childhood memories with one of my sisters who is not much different in age from me. Because I doubted whether we really grew up under one roof with the same father and mother. Often—no, always—memory and each individual’s feeling is not the same. We draw totally different pictures, even though we look at the same mountains and the same sky. That is the diversity of human beings and complication of our hearts. If I write with material about my parents from my memory, I'm sure my sister will call me a “liar.” Parents are only two people, but the pictures can be drawn more than ten million images in a child's eyes. Our memories are just like that.
I think that memoir can always be embellished as long as it is not whole fabrication like novels. We cannot point our finger at the fiction in memoir as if a witness who tells a lie in a criminal trial, because that is not true, but decorated beautifully or more cruelly to portray the truth. It can be dramatized by the author for more consciousness and impress for readers if it is past history, unless it is not a secret hidden diary. Of course, it has to be changed to a novel if the basic story is fiction. But more dramatic trim would be okay to me unless it is not a criminal's alibi.
The memoir is not a diary or biography. I agree with Jenny's writing teacher, who said, "And then there's as much as truth as a writer is willing to tell." Only the writing of fact cannot be a memoir. The past should be revealed by lyrical writing skill, not just the fact. Only so the article goes live. It is the report, not the memoir, if it is written exclusively according to fact. Some things need to be hidden, and some things need to be switched. Some happenings should be exaggerated and some scenes should be deleted or ignored. Innocent people can be a compliment, but it is extremely rare that they can be the subject of awe and be cool. In this regard, straight narrative halves interest in your writing. The memoir should wear proper dress with attached wings to fly far away.
=============================
Wolran Kim
Read & Respond (Jan 2011)
“Do Memoirs Have to Be True?”By Jenny Rough
Memoirists often take some liberties with the “truth”. Is that OK?
Jenny Rough changed her opinion about memoirists taking liberties with the "truth", because of James Frey, who became a scapegoat for his adaptation of his memoir. If it is not intentional, the adaptation of the distortions and fabrications can be fully accepted.
The diary was important language homework in my elementary school. Large spaces which can draw with crayons as artworks occupied half of one page, and I often wrote beautiful happy ending fairy tales as my diary. So one of my sisters, who have arguing with me as a hobby, questioned me whenever she read my diary behind me. Yes, I did. I was a liar. I often adapted to lie convincingly in my diary because the diary had to be open to the teacher, not only my secret diary. It was painful that my gloomy veiled family history had to be read by others’ eyes. Therefore I drew my picture which I wanted to be, not reality, with a beautiful imagination as happy as possible. Everything around me—my family, my house, my room, my garden, and my roof—had to be painted just like my dream. They were actors and the stage I made. My diary was not all lies, and my heart was always true in the outside of reality. Rough mentioned about this view, "Hashing out the notion of factual truth versus emotional truth."
Rough said "Read Augusten Burroughs' and John Elder Robison's memoirs. If you didn't know they were brothers, you’d never believe they had the same parents." I have six older sisters and one younger brother. I was surprised often, whenever I shared childhood memories with one of my sisters who is not much different in age from me. Because I doubted whether we really grew up under one roof with the same father and mother. Often—no, always—memory and each individual’s feeling is not the same. We draw totally different pictures, even though we look at the same mountains and the same sky. That is the diversity of human beings and complication of our hearts. If I write with material about my parents from my memory, I'm sure my sister will call me a “liar.” Parents are only two people, but the pictures can be drawn more than ten million images in a child's eyes. Our memories are just like that.
I think that memoir can always be embellished as long as it is not whole fabrication like novels. We cannot point our finger at the fiction in memoir as if a witness who tells a lie in a criminal trial, because that is not true, but decorated beautifully or more cruelly to portray the truth. It can be dramatized by the author for more consciousness and impress for readers if it is past history, unless it is not a secret hidden diary. Of course, it has to be changed to a novel if the basic story is fiction. But more dramatic trim would be okay to me unless it is not a criminal's alibi.
The memoir is not a diary or biography. I agree with Jenny's writing teacher, who said, "And then there's as much as truth as a writer is willing to tell." Only the writing of fact cannot be a memoir. The past should be revealed by lyrical writing skill, not just the fact. Only so the article goes live. It is the report, not the memoir, if it is written exclusively according to fact. Some things need to be hidden, and some things need to be switched. Some happenings should be exaggerated and some scenes should be deleted or ignored. Innocent people can be a compliment, but it is extremely rare that they can be the subject of awe and be cool. In this regard, straight narrative halves interest in your writing. The memoir should wear proper dress with attached wings to fly far away.